Corona Santiago's 32-24 win ends Vista Murrieta's season

CORONA - For the second year in a row ,Vista Murrieta suffered
its first loss of the season in the CIF quarterfinals, again ending
its season shrouded by questions of what might have been.

Corona Santiago, the only team to get an at-large berth in the
Inland Division, scored 20 points in the fourth quarter to defeat
Vista Murrieta, 32-24, Friday night in a quarterfinal game at
Corona Santiago High School.

The Broncos (11-1) drove the ball to the Santiago 10-yard line
with 3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but Kavon Seaton's
desperation pass into the end zone was intercepted by Anthony Dye
to end the game.

"We have to figure out how to play our best football at the end
of the year, rather than in the middle of the season," said Vista
Murrieta coach Coley Candaele, whose teams have gone 20-0 in the
regular season the last two years.

"Tonight was not our best football game, and they played well.
They're a good football team who deserve to be here, and they are
playing real well right now," he said.

"You cannot have an off-game in the playoffs. If you have an
off-game in the playoffs, you go home. My hat's off to them. They
did exactly what you have to do against us," Candaele said.

Santiago (7-4) won the turnover battle, 2-1, and got some big
plays out of its offense. With Vista Murrieta leading 3-0 in the
first quarter, the Sharks made the first of those when quarterback
Renny Kruse connected with receiver Ryan Berry on a short pass.
Berry then lateraled to Dye who went 33 yards for a touchdown.

"That got us started and kind of opened things up for us,"
Santiago coach Steve Mitchell said. "Because I thought they did a
real nice job defensively on us.

"But our big-play players made plays," Mitchell said. "Berry
making that catch out there and then that toss, was just
fantastic."

Another big play came when B.J. Iverson broke a 59-yard scoring
run with 1:12 to play in the fourth quarter, after the Broncos had
closed to 26-24.

Following a crushing 69-7 loss to Corona Centennial in Week 7,
Santiago remodeled its offense by getting Dye, a defensive back
bound for UCLA, more involved with the ball. The result was 91
points in two games, including its first-round playoff win over
Etiwanda last week, as Dye scored seven touchdowns.

"I'm so proud of these guys because there were many times this
season when we could have folded our tent," Mitchell said. "Many
times in this game we could have folded our tent, but we didn't. We
try to build resilience and perseverance, and this team has that
character and I'm very proud of it."

Except for the hook-and-lateral play, Vista Murrieta did a good
job containing Dye, who also scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth
quarter. However, it could not keep the Sharks' offense under wraps
all night.

Iverson finished with 108 yards on eight carries, and Dye added
another 75 yards on 18 carries. Kruse was also sharp through the
air, completing 14 of 18 for 192 yards, three touchdowns and no
interceptions.

Kruse hit Berry on a 10-yard scoring play with less than a
minute to play in the first half for a 12-3 lead. Vista Murrieta
came out a different team in the second half, though, and Bradley
Randle's two touchdown runs in the third quarter gave the Broncos a
17-12 lead.

Randle finished as the game's leading rusher with 140 yards on
20 carries. His touchdown runs were 1 and 10 yards.

Seaton fumbled on Vista Murrieta's next drive at the Sharks 25
and Santiago answered right back, marching 75 yards in eight plays
to score on a 26-yard pass from Kruse to Marlion Barnett. That gave
Santiago a 20-17 lead with 9:19 remaining, and it never trailed
again.

"We were completely out of sync in the first half," Candaele
said. "We got it back rolling in the second half. But by then, we
had given up too many points to make any other mistakes, and we
made a mistake with the turnover. The turnover on that drive, if
we'd have scored there that might have been a different ballgame.
That's why you have to play 48 minutes."

Seaton finished his fine career with 41 rushing yards and 157
passing yards in the game. He threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to
Hollis Jones (four receptions, 84 yards) that closed the gap to
26-24 with 1:45 left in the fourth quarter. Iverson scored his long
TD less than 30 seconds later.

Jake Carr blocked two extra-point kicks, and John Hardy blocked
another, which gave the Broncos one last shot.

Needing a touchdown and 2-point conversion, Seaton drove them
down the field, hitting Alex Cartwright for 11 yards, then Jones
for 17 and 24. After getting a first down at the Santiago 10 with
11.2 seconds left, Seaton threw an incompletion in the end zone and
then was pressured into Dye's interception on the final play.

"Obviously, they did a lot of things well," Candaele said.
"Enough to win the football game."